I'm vegan ?

poohwinner

Newcomer
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Reaction score
2
Age
24
Location
Belgium
Lifestyle
  1. Vegan newbie
Hi !

I want to become a vegan. But I have a question: 'Can I call myself vegan if I still eat milk and cheese, egg,..when the foods come from well treated animals?
I have chickens myself and sometimes they put a egg out of there cute bibs.. so when I eat a egg of them I never know if it's 'okay' to eat it?

Sorry my English is not so good, hope you understand my question.
 
Vegans don't eat animal products at all, so you would not be a vegan.
Vegans don't believe animals should be used for products, even if they are treated well.
However, if you are avoiding buying meat and dairy from animals treated poorly, I at least applaud you for that so well done for that.
 
do you think I still can discuss things with other vegans ? Like can I go into a vegan community ?
 
In general, you often still can, but you could check with each specific community.

For this specific forum, I don't know.
 
Okay , no! I decided; I'm just gonna do it ! I'm going vegan..tho I have still a ot to learn about what I can eat and not. Also this will take time cause I'm living with my parents and will not be able to have everything at home right away...
 
Hi !

I want to become a vegan. But I have a question: 'Can I call myself vegan if I still eat milk and cheese, egg,..when the foods come from well treated animals?
I have chickens myself and sometimes they put a egg out of there cute bibs.. so when I eat a egg of them I never know if it's 'okay' to eat it?

Sorry my English is not so good, hope you understand my question.

Hey,

I don't think so Vegan is having any by products from animals. Though they are treated well.
 
Hi poohwinner,

It is awesome that you want to transition to a vegan lifestyle: it is really easy - if you remove eggs, milk products (like cheese, butter, yogurt) what do you remain with ? How about potatoes, beans, cereals ?

Gab
 
I also think it's not to hard , but for me making a change in my life always kind of makes a chaos in my head. So I have to make this transition slowly by cutting out more and more. And the fact that I still live with my parents makes that I don't get to decide everything. Besides that I also struggle with a ed, so I have to watch myself that I don't eat to less or to much or that I become to obsessed with it. So it might will be easy for some. But I really have to do this slowly and in little steps.
 
Hi poohwinner,

It is awesome that you want to transition to a vegan lifestyle: it is really easy - if you remove eggs, milk products (like cheese, butter, yogurt) what do you remain with ? How about potatoes, beans, cereals ?

Gab

Hello,

Turning to Vegan is not a very big thing- You get Vegan Cheese, Soy Yogurt and even vegan butter which tastes just like normal butter and once you are use to it, Trust me you won't miss those products.
 
It's not the taste that is hard to deal with if you know what happens with all the animals. Just think about that and you will automatically prefer something that may taste less good but is animale friendly :heart:
 
I also think it's not to hard , but for me making a change in my life always kind of makes a chaos in my head. So I have to make this transition slowly by cutting out more and more. And the fact that I still live with my parents makes that I don't get to decide everything. Besides that I also struggle with a ed, so I have to watch myself that I don't eat to less or to much or that I become to obsessed with it. So it might will be easy for some. But I really have to do this slowly and in little steps.

I also struggle with an ED, though it is under much better control now than it was for a long time. I still went vegan overnight and did very well for a few years (though I was an adult supporting myself), but relapsed into full blown anorexia nervosa (still vegan the whole time) in 2012 to 2014. I recovered and am weight restored all as a vegan as well. It really isn't about food, but as you know, food is a weapon, a trigger, a means of control. You can still be a healthy vegan and get plenty to eat, but you are right in that you do not want to overthink and obsess about it. I see a lot of this with new vegans who DONT have an eating disorder. They obsess about whether they are getting every possible macro and micronutrient and if they have deficiencies etc. One way to overcome this is to learn about vegan nutrition in general. I am not talking about any specific way of eating vegan. Stay away from the books promoting all raw, or high starch low fat, or no oil, or whatever other style of vegan eating they promote. Learn basic vegan nutrition. A good book I read and still refer to from time to time, that covers the basics and does not promote one particular way of eating vegan, is this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Vegan-Complete-Adopting-Plant-Based-ebook/dp/B003HGQKD0

You can also find this book at some libraries, or order it online used for cheap. If your parents are in charge of money and stuff like that, ask them to order it for you and tell them it is about vegan nutrition. The book covers everything you need to know about meeting your needs as a vegan, and it does not require fancy foods and processed stuff. It will give you peace of mind that you can meet your needs as a vegan. The book even has a section on eating disorders and how to gain weight, maintain, lose etc. However, it also requires that you eat foods that might be a challenge for you as someone with an ED. My strategy was not to limit myself too much or fall into the "whole foods only" stuff. Restricting food type and cutting out foods is triggering for those with eating disorders (this is more for others reading this post than for you poohwinner as I know you know this). So for those of us who are vegan and have eating disorders, we must be flexible with food choices in the vegan realm, allowing ourselves a wide range of all of the vegan food possibilities out there, because in a sense, going vegan, we ARE cutting out foods. But we can make up for that by enjoying a wide range of plant food, more than what we were familiar with before. I enjoy a lot of simple whole foods, but I also enjoy occasional vegan processed foods. I allow for soy and gluten and fats, all foods a lot of people label as "bad" or "unhealthy". They are not unhealthy and bad. They are simply plant food, and can provide enjoyment as well as nourishment. Whole foods like beans, nuts/seeds, grains, fruits and veggies do tend to be cheaper but not always, than vegan versions of processed foods. But every vegan food has it's place and with an ED we have to be careful not to avoid too much in the plant world.

If you give up eggs for example, make sure you have foods to eat in place of those that you will enjoy instead. I love chickpea flour omelets, or tofu scramble, or chickpea salad sandwiches. I use Just Mayo brand vegan mayo which can be found at common stores like Target and many grocery stores now. In place of milk, I have tried a wide range of plant based milks...soy milk, almond milk, cashew milk, rice milk, hemp milk, coconut milk, flaxseed milk. In place of yogurt, I learned to blend tofu with a banana and cocoa powder and a pinch of sweetener for a rich creamy high protein pudding that is not too sweet, or make creamy smoothies, or buy vegan yogurts like Daiya, SoDelicious, Silk etc, though these can be more expensive. I even learned to make fermented oatgurt which is full of probiotics. On toast, instead of butter, I spread peanut butter or another nut/seed butter, or tomato paste, or beans and salsa, or white bean dip, or hummus. I still make pancakes without the egg and they are amazingly easy to make without egg or dairy. Same with french toast. Banana makes a great add in when eliminating eggs for french toast or pancakes. Canned pumpkin or sweet potato is great too! Or for lighter pancakes, vegan buttermilk (soymilk and a tablespoon of vinegar which makes it curdle) is awesome!

If you depend on your parents for food, maybe you could earn some money for vegan specialty foods (ie plant milks, vegan burgers, tofu, etc) by doing some extra chores or projects around the house, or find a part time job to earn some income to buy some of your own items. Ask whoever shops for food if you can come along and show them the types of foods you would need and want. As well, if you have an ED, it is important that they understand your needs and desires as a vegan so that you can meet your needs. Learn about vegan nutrition and share what you learn with them. Show them books and print off information you find on the internet about vegan nutrition (see my links below) so they can see you will be able to meet your needs and that this is not just another "diet" or not part of your eating disorder. Give them some ideas on what you will eat, and include foods that are not seen as "eating disordered" (ie low calorie, no fat etc). For example, share that you can eat peanut butter and banana sandwiches on whole wheat bread, or chocolate soy milk full fat version. :) Spend time searching vegan recipes that are relatively easy to make. If your parents are the type that are totally against being vegan, you may have to settle for vegetarian (people seem to accept this more) or pescetarian until you are on your own. I went vegan as an adult so I did not experience this hardship. But kids have managed. Here are some links I hope can be of help to you. The first is VegWeb. They have a huge database of vegan recipes and a wide variety of vegan types of food. it isn't specifically a "health" type recipe base, so you can see that vegan food is not all about smoothies and sprouts. :)
http://www.vegweb.com/recipes

Here are two versions of the vegan food pyramid:

http://www.vegan-nutritionista.com/vegan-food-pyramid.html
http://www.vegancoach.com/vegan-food-pyramid.html

And some info for vegan teens:
http://www.vrg.org/family/kidsindex.htm
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/teens

Much of the info above is from the U.S., but I imagine it can be applied anywhere in the world, though some food items might be harder to find. Many grains, beans, soy milk, nuts/seeds and nut/seed/peanut butters are universal. Start with recipes based on those and see what kind of menu you can build up for yourself! My vegan menu started out pretty small but quickly ballooned. I started with a three ring binder of recipes I found online or copied from cookbooks at libraries, but it quickly turned into 2 notebooks and now I have 6 notebooks and 11 vegan cookbooks and I am NEVER hurting for food ideas lol. It is very spontaneous and natural for me now at almost six years vegan. it took about a half year to get fully comfortable with it all though. And I was obsessed with food for a while, excited to learn what all I could eat. This was a little triggering because part of my ED was that the more I obsessed about food, the more I could trigger binge/purge episodes (I also suffered with periods of bulimia though I was clinically anorexic). I offset some of that obsession by first learning vegan nutrition and basic recipes, then later by finding other interests besides food such as animal rights activism (I volunteered for Vegan Outreach for a year), school studies, dance classes etc. Physical activity made me appreciate what I need as a vegan to fuel my body and be healthy, and accomplishing career goals also helped me eat healthy for my mind.

Best wishes! Sorry for the long post but I am a passionate vegan, ED survivor who has overcome tremendous odds and regained a rich life, and love to share with others! :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: gab
Thank you Naturebound, I learned a few new things myself.